BIOS language change

[Bobby491]

No question. Just an answer. I had purchased a refurbished HP desktop (Pavilion), and I assumed that the vendor had done a good job of cleaning it out, data wise. Not so.

I was working with this, and I needed to change something normal in the BIOS. The thing was in a foreign language, which I falsely assumed was Japanese. As it turns out, it is very difficult for an English user to find something in another language menu, especially when it is some Asian language. After 48 hours of fighting with this and looking for a change procedure, I was getting advice from HP, Amazon, and others. However, they were all finding a generic change procedure, and it did not work on this machine. Of course they were not actually trying the procedure since they were not on a machine with that problem. Later, I discovered that it was not Japanese, but it was Simplified Chinese (which uses a similar alphabet). I kept trying to get Google Translate to help, but I could not get the offending text into Google. It was not taking my images. I kept telling it Japanese, but it was Chinese.

Later still, I received a change procedure to try, and it had a hint. "Navigate to the Language Settings. This is often found under System Language, Main, or a similar option. 1.Tip: if you can't find it, look for the 4th tab on the right."

I looked at these top tabs and started trying each one (still in the foreign language which I could not read). I tried one, and suddenly it popped up with a normal English text list of available languages. I picked English, and saved it.

I hope you don't have the same problem.

[VikramTheGreat]

Hi @Bobby491,

Welcome to HP Support Community!

We noticed that this thread hasn't had any updates in a while since your original post; while this is rare, we didn't want this post to remain unanswered, so here's the solution to your query. We hope it helps you and everyone viewing this post 😊

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience and the solution you found.

We can certainly understand how challenging it must have been to navigate BIOS settings in a language you were unable to read, especially when trying to make what should have been a simple configuration change. We appreciate you sharing the details of your troubleshooting journey and the eventual resolution.

It's also very helpful that you pointed out the distinction between Japanese and Simplified Chinese, as well as the tip about checking the tabs for the language selection option. Information like this can be valuable for other users who may encounter a similar situation, particularly on refurbished systems where previous settings may not have been restored to their default configuration.

We're glad to hear you were ultimately able to locate the language setting, switch the BIOS back to English, and get past the issue.

Thank you again for sharing your findings with the community. If you need assistance with anything else regarding your HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop in the future, please don't hesitate to let us know. We'll be happy to help.

Thanks for being part of the HP Community!